Various paper products can be manufactured from fibers. These products are often manufactured using an aqueous slurry of fibers that include modified cellulose fibers derived from various plant sources. In a papermaking process, water is removed from the slurry in a controlled manner to form a web, which can be subsequently pressed and dried to form a final paper product.
In the preparation of paper, commonly used materials for surface sizing agents are starches and modified starches, including oxidized, enzyme-converted, hydroxyethylated, and cationic starches. These sizing agents can have the benefit of improving strength, and reducing porosity of the paper product. Dent corn starch is relatively inexpensive sizing agent compared to other products, and has reasonably good sizing properties. Unfortunately, dent corn starch is known to retain fatty acids, which can be a problem because fatty acids may interfere with the runability of the paper machine. In addition, dent corn starch is often applied to paper webs at sufficient high loading values that the starch is a significant papermaking expense. Also, machine speeds may often be reduced in order to accommodate for the addition of the dent corn starch sizing agent due to the additional steam usage needed for drying the starch sized paper.
Therefore, a need exists for an improved starch composition that may be used to improve strength and reduce porosity of paper products, and will allow papermakers to increase machine speeds while making stronger and lighter sheets.